Recently, pictograms have been used in receiving and transmitting emails with mobile terminal devices. Pictograms are pictures representing semantics, which are convenient tools for simply expressing senders' feelings.
It may be difficult to read emails received on mobile terminal devices having a small display. To facilitate readability in reading emails displayed in a limited space, pictograms have been used in emails via mobile terminal devices.
Additionally, it may not be easy to input emails with mobile terminal devices having a small operation part for inputting characters. To simplify input operations, pictograms may be used in emails via mobile terminal devices. By using pictograms, it is possible to convey semantics to the other party in a convenient way while eliminating the necessity of inputting a long sentence.
Thus, mobile terminal devices are designed to insert pictograms between sentences, thus rendering sentences with enriched expression. That is, it is possible to insert pictograms into emails produced with character codes allocated to dotted pictures or images which are preinstalled in devices.
Due to the spreading of emails written in the HTML, mobile terminal devices are designed to adopt images having the same size as pictograms in addition to pictograms preinstalled in devices. Thus, users may not experience any limitation in terms of the number of pictograms and the types of pictograms.
On the other hand, users may experience increasingly complicated operation for searching preferable pictograms.
Generally speaking, mobile terminal devices are recently designed to allow users to select desired ones from among a plurality of pictograms preinstalled therein, thus inputting pictograms into emails. Upon receiving emails including pictograms, mobile terminal devices retrieve pictograms having the specified codes from character data stored therein, thus inputting and displaying them.
In the usage of pictograms described above, however, mobile terminal devices may be able to solely display pictograms preinstalled therein as translation candidates for editing characters. Due to absence of preinstalled pictograms according to users' preference, users may need to activate browsers so as to download and acquire users' preferred pictograms; hence, users may need to carry out a special operation to download pictograms.
As prior art in this field, Patent Literature 1 discloses a technology of displaying images together with kanji translation candidates without switching over kana-kanji translation and image searching, thus inserting images into word processors. Specifically, this technology provides a pictogram dictionary for registering readings and their image file names. Upon inputting a character string via an input tool, a plurality of kanji translation candidates is listed by use of a kana-kanji translation tool and a kanji dictionary. A pictogram search tool retrieves all the kanji translation candidates and their readings from a kana-kanji translation tool so as to search through a pictogram dictionary with keys defined as readings. Upon retrieving an image file specified by the foregoing reading, a candidate list display tool displays a kanji translation candidate and its image. Characters selected from among kanji translation candidates and images are displayed with a character/image display tool.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a technology of downloading user's selected pictograms on web pages, thus facilitating availability of pictograms other than preinstalled ones. Specifically, pictogram files stored in servers are released online via web pages for the purpose of downloading them. Mobile terminal devices access servers to download pictogram files thereto and then store the received pictogram files for use in emails. Upon receiving emails including codes of pictograms which are not preinstalled, mobile terminal devices display predetermined icons at the positions of codes. Upon users' selecting icons, mobile terminal devices access servers to download pictogram files. Upon receiving pictogram files, mobile terminal devices store them in memory for use in emails while utilizing them in the currently displayed emails.
Patent Literature 3 discloses a pictogram search device which is designed to improve a pictogram translation efficiency and facilitate a function of precisely searching pictograms supplementarily expressing the content of an input sentence by way of the determination of pictogram candidates based on the full length of a character string prior to a cursor in addition to a character preceding a cursor indicating the input position of a character string. Specifically, a terminal applies an input character string and the position of a cursor indicating the input position of a current character string to a pictogram search part. The pictogram search part extracts a retrieval key from a character string prior to the position of a cursor so as to search through a pictogram database based on the extracted retrieval key. Thus, it is possible to output a pictogram, corresponding to the input character string, as a pictogram candidate on a pictogram candidate selecting screen.
Patent Literature 4 discloses a pictogram providing system which facilitates availability of pictograms, with enriched expression, in HTML mails. Specifically, this system is designed to download two pictograms, which forms a single image in its entirety, from a server to a mobile terminal device. Herein, this system downloads pictograms in a reverse order in order to prevent two pictograms, defining an input candidate, from being displayed in a left-right reversed manner in producing an HTML mail.